Sick of eating the same meals? Then why do it?

If your eating the same meals all the time your without a doubt going to slip up, it's boring. We humans love our food! When I'm feeling like I need a bit of cheat food in my life I just do the next best thing. Today I have had chicken burger and wedges. Doesn't sound to healthy on paper does it? It can be. 

Today I have had a lightly toasted wholemeal bap with a 200g chicken breast, lettuce, tomatoe with 200g of home made wedges. It's so simple to make and will leave you feeling like you have ate something harsh on the diet but Infact you haven't at all. This packed in around 750kcal which may seem like a lot but it all depends on your daily allowance really, at the moment I'm trying to stay around 2200 and with what I have ate today there was plenty of room for this. Not to mention all the calories are good! You could easily lower the calorie intake on the meal by simply cutting down the portion size of wedges, I chose 200g because I could afford to, you could easily feel full off 100g especially with the size of the burger. The meal will take around 1 hour to cook including preparation time, it's well worth the wait, believe me. 

1. First of all your going to want to wash your chicken breast thoroughly, I usually give it a good rinse under the tap and just wipe away that thin layer of skin/fat. 

2. Score the chicken a few times on both sides of the chicken and put salt, pepper and chicken seasoning over the chicken. (Chicken seasoning can be purchased from any local supermarket) Place in the oven with peppers and onions, only

If you like peppers and onions, for 1 hour. 

3. Cut your potatoes leaving the skin on into wedge shapes, lightly covering with olive oil, season well with salt and pepper. Place in the oven for 50 mins turning once.

4. Preper your lettuce, tomatoe and a few minutes befor your food is due to come out the oven, lightly toast your wholemeal bap on both sides. 

5. Enjoy! 

Eggs, a mans best friend. (Women friendly to!)

Eggs, the best a man can get
Eggs are the best calorie for calorie source of protein for muscle building benefits. There are tons of reasons why eggs can be the most important food in your diary when trying to gain muscle. There is always alot of stigma around the yolk in an egg, "Theres to much saturated fat" or "It will increase my risk of heart disease" Ok if all you ever ate was eggs then this would probably be true. Eating a few eggs everyday isn't going to put you at any serious risk, infact, its highly beneficial. The yolk is not only the part of the egg with the most protein, it also contains alot of vitamin B12 which is necessary for fat breakdown and muscle contraction.

Recent studies have shown that eating 2 eggs in the morning will leave you feeling more full up throughout the day saving you those extra calories and burns more fat to! Eggs also improve the recovery time after workouts and can also make your workouts more intense without the downtime in the middle.

Let's not forget that eggs can make a dinner complete. If your not feeling a big chunk of meat on your plate then your protein can come from the eggs. If you have a 5 egg omelette with 3 part yolk and 2 part white then your going to get around 25-30g of protein depending on the size of the egg. This contains only around 300 calories and will leave you feeling full up. You could also add cheese, ham, onions, mushrooms or whatever you wanted in there really! I have eggs most mornings and will continue to do so, being a major part in body building and fat building.

Here's a tuna and cheese omelette i made this morning containing 400 calories and nearly 60g of protein, not to mention it tasted so good.

Had a bad weekend? Theres always next weekend.

Don't beat yourself up all the time over what you ate or what you didn't eat. I find the worse thing i can do is worry about junk food that I ate over a weekend, if your spending time with your friends/family and having a good time then who cares? you can always work harder during the week. Ok ill be the first to admit that you cant out-train a bad diet but that doesn't mean you have to be 100% all the time. I wont be updating the blog on the weekends from now on as i will be pre-occupied with friends/family.

I have been training hard lately and plan to maintain the motivation! at the moment i'm going to be doing some interval training at the end of a session for that extra fat burn! I'm going to do this every session now and try and shift some fat. I weighed in today at 16st 4lb, not my best weight. Yer i was a little down about it this morning but now i'm even more determined! I aim for a toned 14st 7lb - 15st or somewhere around that as long as i feel my best and look it.

Here's how todays training regime went!

Chest day!

Warm up
Cross trainer 7 mins
25 dips
10 pull ups

Bench Press Barbell
20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 4, 4, 10, 20
Max weight was 100kg on the 4 reps, needed more of a spot than last time.

Incline Bench Press Barbell
20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 4, 4, 10, 20
Max weight was 80kg, felt really fatigued today after the first exercise.

Cable Flys
20, 15, 10, 8, 4, 10, 20

Incline Cable Flys
20, 15, 10, 8, 4, 10, 20

Interval Training Bike
30 seconds on 30 seconds off
10 intervals

Good session today, didn't beat any personal bests but in all fairness I wasn't expecting to!

Ever wanted Boulder Shoulders?

Have you ever wanted your shoulders to look like they do on the films? Or traps like Tom Hardy? 

I do. I haven't got them, but with a workout like this I'm taking a step in the right direction! Today was a beasty session burning loads of energy and left me aching and tired. Just how you should feel! No personal bests set today but enjoyed it either way. 

This taken around 1 hour 30 minutes with a 10 minute cross trainer warm up. I was going to do some cardio at the end of the session today but was running late and had to get back, i will make up for it tomorrow either way! 

Food on the go, Colourful and PROTEIN!

Breakfast was so good, with low calories and a massive portion I was full up until lunch and managed to get just over 30g of protein with a whole bunch of amino acids. 2 peices of wholemeal Danish toast with a 5 egg omelette. The omelette was 2 part yolk, 3 part white. 

Lunch can be one of the hardest meals of the day to fit in, trying to balance eating the correct meals while at work or on the move can be challenging. Meal prep is very important, I always prep myself a meal the night befor making sure I always have something healthy to eat. This will mean that you will always no what your eating making it that much easier to keep track. Prepping a meal the night befor doesn't mean cooking your dinner then cooking another meal for lunch, just do extra and store it in the fridge overnight. Today was chicken and rice, coming in at around 450 calories with 55g of protein.

Dinner today was salmon, brocoli, green beans, rice, sweetcorn and beetroot. I was going to have couscous instead of rice but I didn't put enough water in and completely ruined it. After that I was thrown off the idea altogether haha. Still packed in around 600 calories with 45g of protein for my final meal of the day. 

Snacking today was simple, made up of 2 protein shakes an apple, pear, banana and a protein bar. Making up to around 650 calories with 70g of protein.

Today has been around 2000kcal with just over 200g of protein, another really good day. I haven't felt hungry today at all and iv had a really good session at the gym so I'm going to conclude it there, job done. :) 

Filling up when snacking - Trick of the mind!

Snacking

You don't have to feel like you haven't ate at all when snacking! I've always found that when snacking, if I eat on the move or while I'm occupied I can often feel unsatisfied and left hungry. I think there is  a way to trick yourself into feeling full up, even if your not. 

Sitting down with a meal and slowly eating always leaves you full up, why not sit down with a snack and take time to enjoy your food? We do it with meals so why not with snacks? I have been taking time out of the day when possible to have a small snack. I will sit down with the snack and eat it slowly chewing as much as possible, today an apple left me feeling satisfied using this trick. It's a good way to stop yourself reaching for the biscuit tin or a pack of crisps!

Big Arms Day!

Biceps and Triceps! 

Today was a good session I'm aching like mad from yesterday and it feels gooooood! Feel like iv completly ripped my arms today after an intense session! 

The session taken around an hour and a half with small rests in between sets and 3 mins between exercises! Set a new personal best aswel :) 

Diets don't have to be Dire!

 Diets don't have to be dire! 

Today I woke up to 2 slices of wholemeal Danish bread alongside 2 egg scrambled egg with a peice of haddock and a little salt and pepper! This amounted to 30g of protein at 350 calories! And a good start to the day. 

Lunch was lean pork, lettuce, sweet corn, beetroot and carrot slices, this was only around 350 calories with 35g of protein.

Dinner was A jerk chicken breast with onions, peppers, sweetcorn, broccoli green beans and rice, had to have some carbs after a good training session! This was around 550 calories with 55g of protein! 

Snacks was easy going today, had 2 protein shakes an apple and a pear and some peanut butter snacks this would have added up to around 800 calories and 70g of protein spaced out through the day. 

Today I haven't been hungry at all and the food has been sooooo good! Had around 190g of protein and 2100 calories! Aswel as a massive session training arms! Good day! 

17.02.14 Food Diary

Food Diary 17.02.14

Today was a great day for food! My only criticism was there wasn't enough for me if anything, although what I did eat was very healthy with multiple nutrients and vitamins.  Just keep in mind the calories aren't exact they are within 50 calories give or take every meal! The speed soup gets it name from the metabolism boost it gives, tomorrow I will upload the recipe and method. Here it is, enjoy :)

Breakfast - 400kcal 

45g of granola with 30ml skimmed milk

1 Apple

1 Pear

9:30am - 130kcal 

Protein shake

12:00pm - 300kcal

Speed soup with pork

2:30pm - 80kcal

2 pieces of carver ham

5:00pm - 130kcal

Protein shake

8:00pm - 800kcal

8oz extra lean sirloin steak with 300g mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots, peas, sweetcorn and a splash of gravy.

Total calories: 1840

Chest Day! OUCH!

Today was hard work! Iv'e managed to get myself to the gym after a sketchy few weeks, today is the start of my new training program and healthy eating regime. Today was Chest day, I'm currently following a program that my friend has wrote up for me, it has only 4 exercises but they are to me what do the most damage! I can already tell that I am going to be in agony tomorrow, I am surprisingly looking forward to it!

The program went like this;

Warm up
10 minutes Cross Trainer
25 Body weight dips
15 Pull ups

Workout
Bench Press
20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 4, 4, 10, 20
Max weight on the 4 reps was 100kg

Incline Bench Press
20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 4, 4, 10, 20
Max weight on the 4 reps was 95kg

Cable Flys
20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 4, 4, 10, 20
Max weight was 25kg

Incline Cable Flys
20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 4, 4, 10, 20
Max weight was 25kg

The Numbers represent how many reps was in the set, each exercise had 10 sets in each. The idea on this routine is to increase size and strength, the strength is coming from the max weight 1-4 rep sets and the size comes from the amount of reps. A really enjoyable session taking around 1 hour 45 mins to complete with around 30 second rest between a set, 3 minutes between an exercise.

Here is one of my first progress photos i took back in March 2013, the picture on the right was taken in April 2012!

Here's a quick snap of me and my girlfriend on valentines day 2014, the post below is a picture of us at prom over 6 years ago! We had a great night and I don't feel guilty about the alcohol and food consumption! All the time in the world to work it off anyway! Tomorrow I am starting a fairly strict diet plan and am going to be working on toning muscle and burning fat! A meal plan for the day will be posted tomorrow alongside a workout plan.

In this photo I am at a all time low, weighing in at around 22st at the age of 15. I had major issues with my weight, causing me to be unhappy which lead to comfort eating. When I was alone at home I would see it as a golden opportunity to eat as much food as I could, I would eat whatever was in my cupboards, this consisted of chocolate, crisps, sweets, fast food and lots of it! I had issues with people seeing me eat because it made me feel self conscious and paranoid that people would see me as greedy, lazy and any other stereotypes that go alongside being overweight. To make sure that nobody saw what I was eating I would hide the evidence by hiding the empty packets somewhere in my room or making sure I would be the person to take the rubbish out so no one would see it. This left me alone as no one but myself could see why i was gaining weight.